AUCKLAND, July 25 (AFP) - New Zealand Tuesday urged Indonesia to track
down and punish the killers of a UN peacekeeper shot in the head and
stripped of his rifle and ammunition by suspected militia in East Timor.

"We would certainly want to see Indonesia do everything within its
powers to disarm the militia that continue to raid across the
border," said New Zealand Foreign Minister Phil Goff.

Goff said he would meet Indonesian Foreign Minister Alwi Shihab in
Bangkok this week to voice Wellington's concerns over the soldier's death.

"Dr Shihab and Indonesia must take responsibility for law, order
and security in and around refugee camps in West Timor," he said.

Private Leonard William Manning, 24, was shot twice Monday afternoon
when New Zealand troops tracking militia fighters in a rugged border area
near Suai came under fire.

He was the first combat casualty since the United Nations-backed peace
enforcement team arrived in the former Indonesian territory last September
and New Zealand's first combat casualty since the Vietnam war.

His body, stripped of his rifle and ammunition by his killers, lay
overnight where it first fell but has since been recovered.

The New Zealand-based joint force commander Brigadier Jerry Mateparae
told reporters about four or five shots were fired, followed by a burst of
automatic gunfire.

The New Zealand troops returned fire and withdrew to a more secure
area. It was during that process that Manning was shot.

"When you are being shot at you come back to a position where you
are a lot more secure," Mateparae said. "What I have heard is
that he was shot in the back of the head as he was running and also in the
right shoulder."

New Zealand's Prime Minister Helen Clark said she was shocked.

"The East Timor deployment was one that occured last year and was
supported by the whole parliament but I think everyone was conscious that
peacekeeping can be extremely dangerous and we've seen that in this
incident," she said.

"I feel very shocked and upset for the family."

Manning is expected to be given a full military funeral, if his family
wants it, army officials said.

United Nation's representative for the former Portuguese colony, Sergio
Vieira de Mello, warned the death could have serious repercussions for
stability on East Timor

"This endangers everything we have been trying to achieve since we
arrived in East Timor," he told reporters in Bangkok.

De Mello said it was the third serious attack on UN peacekeeping
troops, the last involving a grenade tossed at Australian soldiers,
injuring one.

Independence hero Xanana Gusmao, in Bangkok with de Mello, voiced
similar concerns, saying the private's death was a "real threat"
to the peace and reconciliation process.

"We do not want to have more victims in this process," he
said.

East Timor voted overwhelmingly for independence from Indonesia last
August, prompting a backlash from sections of the military, police and
armed militias.

Nearly 9,000 UN troops took over from the initial Australian-led
intervention force sent in to restore order after the spree of violence.

New Zealand Defence Chief Air Marshal Carey Adamson said last week the
defence force was working on an "exit strategy" for East Timor
that could result in withdrawal of all its 660 troops in four months.

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